The invention relates to a connector for a fluid line of an extracorporeal circuit, to a use for a connector for a fluid line of an extracorporeal circuit, to an extracorporeal blood circuit, to an apparatus for extracorporeal blood treatment, and to a process for manufacturing a connector for a fluid line of an extracorporeal circuit.
Specifically, though not exclusively, the invention can be usefully applied in the field of extracorporeal treatment for kidney failure, for example for connecting an extracorporeal blood circuit to a pressure sensor of a dialysis machine.
The prior art comprises a blood chamber for an extracorporeal circuit realised according to the preamble of the first claim, in which a service line has a first end connected to the blood chamber and a second end predisposed for connection to an external element (for example a pressure sensor of a machine for extracorporeal blood treatment). The second end exhibits an opening which, in an operating configuration, at least partially receives a projection (for example, the projection of a male Luer connection) provided on the external element. Before use, the second end of the service line is normally closed, for hygienic and security reasons, by a closure element usually constituted by a plug connected removably to the second end, for example by means of a sealed fluid-proof screw coupling of the Luer type.
The closure elements, used in the prior art to keep the fluid lines of an extracorporeal circuit closed, exhibit some drawbacks and lacks.
Firstly, the closure element has to be manufactured separately from the service line assembled thereon subsequently, with a consequent increase in costs and times of production of the extracorporeal circuit.
Secondly, the closure element must be removed from the service line before use, increasing complications in the already-complex various phases of readying the extracorporeal circuit on the machine performing the extracorporeal treatment.
Thirdly, the closure element might be removed before it should be, for example by error on the part of the operator, with the risk of contamination of the service line and the treatment machine the line is to be associated to.
Furthermore, the known-type closure element, being easily reclosable, is unable to signal a first opening, i.e. it cannot guarantee that the fluid line, apparently closed up until the moment of its use, has not been previously opened with a consequent risk of external contamination.